[67] Who Is the Real Hero?
Chapter 67: Who Is the Real Hero?
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The Color of the Supreme King. Arlong had the luck to hear about it from his deceased brother, Fisher Tiger.
Still to this day, he remembered what Fisher Tiger had said. ``If your opponent happens to be a Supreme King… Just don’t fight. It’s never a good idea.``
So who was this human boy to be one of those Kings? Arlong was a little fearful.
“Who… are you?”
Standing meters far from Hashirama, Arlong’s fist clenched while all the humans and fishmen grew confused.
Why was he acting like that? In the meantime, Hashirama looked just as casual as a moment ago.
“You already saw who I am in the bounty poster. Purely your fault that you assumed I got a faulty bounty.”
Hashirama shrugged. “Look dude, I know you’re about to attack me, so I am warning you not to. I don’t want to fight. I would have already knocked you out if that was not the case. You kinda got the shortest stick of all, and even when you tried to change, you got done badly. So I can understand your racist shenanigans. That’s the only reason I don’t want to fight, count me a big fan.”
Arlong was a villain, no denying that. But it’s the world that made him that way. The people, the humans who later on didn’t let him change when he tried. Arlong was a villain that the humans made.
Hashirama’s master preached individual superiority. He said no race was beyond one another, but as a person, someone could be beyond all races and the entire population as a whole. Hashirama believed that too, but he could feel Arlong’s reasons, so he didn’t really want to fight him. It was lucky that this wasn’t his fight, to begin with.
“So,”
Hashirama turned his palm to face the sky, and a bomb fell on it. From the sky, where no tree was visible. Looking closer, it was not a bomb. It was a fruit… shaped like a bomb.
“Why don’t you brawl your ego out with the ladies whom you are bullying right now? Though it’s only fair that I give one of them a power boost.”
Hashirama looked at the Bomb-Bomb fruit that his clone had retrieved. The reason he was waiting out and watching Arlong talk shit was that he was waiting for his clone to come back.
He had sent the clone back when he went to fetch Cola on the last island. Back then he was planning to give the fruit to Nami, but now…
He recalled Eichiro Oda chose the Rumble-Rumble fruit for Nami, but just because he chose it didn’t mean it was the greatest fruit for them. He never said that was the case. So Hashirama planned to throw the Bomb Fruit at Nami and see her fry Arlong with it.
But now, it was a little different.
Hashirama tossed the fruit forward. It rolled between Nami and Nojiko. They looked at the fruit, and then at each other.
“You can choose who wants to eat it. It’s a power that’d give you an upper hand against fishes.”
The fishmen in the back shouted. “Arlong! What are you doing?! Give us the order, we will stop them! Let’s kill that human bastard!”
Arlong stayed silent for a moment, before saying. “Do it.”
Right away, the group of fishmen kicked the ground and came rushing at Hashirama with their weapons bare. Hashirama tapped the ground, and the palm tree near them shot out the root to grab them and tie them up.
Arlong was too strong for the mere roots, sadly. He broke free and rushed to Hashirama.
“Why are you not knocking us out?! Will that not work against me?”
“Let’s not be too full of yourself.”
Hashirama clasped his hands and a thick vine came out of the ground. Just before Arlong could reach him, he was grabbed by it and stopped on his spot.
“Argh-!”
Hashirama ignored the struggling and groaning Arlong and looked at the confused girls.
“Look, I can defeat him right now. But do you really want that? I mean, does being damsels in distress feel that good? You have a chance before you, yet you’re hesitating? I don’t usually judge people, but this has to be the most pathetic thing I have seen in a while. Eat it.”
Hashirama watched the two girls take in shivering breaths before taking a gulp. They could stay here and do nothing. Arlong would be defeated anyway. But… were they fine with it? The thought of beating Arlong with their own hands was disgustingly alluring.
“Nami… you eat it.”
But Nojiko knew she didn’t deserve that delicious taste. She told her sister to eat it. This girl who’s been fighting for all of the islanders for a long decade.
“I… All right.”
Nami couldn’t win against the allure. She picked up the fruit and… gulped it down whole. Her throat appeared as if it would burst open but she forced herself to gulp down as she went dazed for a moment. Weird descriptions of power washed into her head as she trembled before sighing and standing up.
Usually, Nami would be shivering. She would be crying. But today she felt strong. As all the islanders looked at her in hope, and as she knew there was a strong person backing her, she felt stronger than ever.
“I see what you meant when you said this will be helpful against fishes.” Nami said. “Let him go. I wanna deal with him on my own.”
“Good.”
Hashirama smiled.
“Unfortunately, letting him go isn’t quite my choice. He is going to be freed anyway in six seconds. Apparently using Conqueror’s Haki a lot drains a clone’s chakra.”
“…Huh?”
“See you later.”
Hashirama’s body burst into a puff of smoke, just as the tight veins and roots around the fishmen lost their strength. They were still quite strong for human standards, but since Hashirama wasn’t controlling the veins anymore, they weren’t strong enough for fishmen.
The fishmen easily broke through it.
A jaw-clenched Arlong tore the thick vines apart and looked at Nami with glaring eyes.
“You stupid human bitch.”
Nami took a step back.
* * *
All of Nami’s earlier bravado vanished.
Now that she didn’t have Hashirama who she was sure could knock Arlong out if she was in any danger, she returned to her default settings.
Her PTSD acted up and she started to shake.
“...Nami!”
Why was Nami always scared in the original timeline? That’s because she was trained to be scared and submissive for eight years. She had a trauma. Arlong was like a brick wall that she had never even dreamt of climbing.
Now just because she had a devil fruit, how could she go against him?
“Nami!”
Nojiko’s second call broke her out of her trance a little.
“Don’t be pathetic! Don’t make me regret giving you the fruit!”
“Y-yes, Nami! Don’t back off now.”
One of the villagers yelled. Nami’s eyes widened.
“Yes, Nami!”
“Go, Nami! Use that power and beat him up!”
“For Bellemere!”
“For us!”
Nami paused. What were the villagers doing?
“Arlong, give us the order, and we will fuck all of them up!”
“No, silence,” Arlong growled. “Let them celebrate. I want to see their expressions after I show them the difference between a fishman and a little human bitch. Stay down and make sure nobody intervenes.”
On the side, Genzo quickly ran to Nojiko and dragged her away from the battlefield.
Now, only Nami and Arlong were left on the open circular area that was a makeshift battlefield.
Nami was scared. However, the earlier cheer had calmed her down a lot.
She looked into the information that came from the devil fruit. What was the best way to use it? The Bomb-Bomb Fruit was strong, but it was also dangerous to the allies.
The fruit's main strength was that the user can detonate their entire body or limbs in a manner akin to a living human bomb, generating powerful explosive forces that harm anything but the user itself. The explosive quality extended to bodily emissions such as mucus and breath, giving the user the capacity to utilize ranged attacks should they find ways to weaponize those substances.
She knew that just from eating the fruit alone. But she couldn’t go full-on explosion. It’d kill the islanders.
In that case…
“Enough standing around. Die.”
Arlong suddenly announced and rushed at her. His huge figure rushed at her at a stunning speed and Nami flinched. However, she didn’t step back.
Nami parted her lips… and spat at the rushing Arlong.
– Boom!
An explosion happened that threw Arlong meters behind. The fishmen shouted in worry while the hopeful islanders smiled.
However, as the dust cleared, Arlong came out barely scratched. Even though the spit fell on his cheek, he wasn’t hurt much. But he was hurt even if only a little. That alone made Nami make a wild grin.
This…
This was it.
“Fucking fish bastard! I will fry you!”
Nami exploded her feet and flew forward. She nearly went the wrong path, but she raised her hand forward before she could pass Arlong. Her palms exploded.
“Die!”
– Boom!
“Stupid human bitch! You ungrateful whore!”
Arlong was now bleeding from his nose. His blood was red. Just like humans. The islanders were a little surprised by that.
Arlong wiped the blood and looked at her shaky grin. It looked so pathetic to him.
“It’s a powerful fruit. But you’re a weak human bitch. I am going to end this.”
Then, Arlong kicked the ground and appeared right before Nami. Nami tried to explode, but she was slow. The fruit didn’t give her any physical upgrade, after all.
Arlong punched her in the stomach, and the sound of bones breaking resounded. He could finish her right away, but he wasn’t the type to not have some fun. More so, when it was his favorite Nami.
“I am going to break you so bad-”
Nami wrapped her arms around Arlong. It shocked him so much that he paused. Just as a frown formed on him, he realized all his comrades were behind him. Nami had locked him by hugging him.
Before Arlong could throw her back with his overwhelming strength, Nami’s torso exploded.
– Boom! – Boom! – Boom!
Multiple continuous detonations of kinetic energy flared up from the front of her body and burst outwards. The fire of the explosion burned the blue fishman down to his bones, while Nami’s screech deafened even the explosion.
– Boom! – Boom! – Boom!
“Karghh-!”
Arlong could dodge, but that’d mean that his comrades would receive the blow instead. So he took it. He took the explosion to his face, as it went through his body from one side to another.
A large cave formed on the blue shark’s body, leaving only a bit of flesh still intact, as the explosion ended and Arlong’s gory dead body fell to the floor.
At the very least,
Arlong the Saw died a hero of his kind.
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Master4thWall Note: I wasn't supposed to post this week, but just wanted to finish this fight first. Enjoy!
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